• Why the world focuses on British teenage diver Tom Daley

"The smile didn't once leave the face of Britain's Olympic team. From the rigours of a morning training session, through a lunchtime of exhibition dives to an afternoon of never-ending interviews, Tom Daley gave the impression he was lapping up every minute.

But then, why wouldn't he? His training partners are two 21-year-old blonde girls, he has his own gaggle of groupies and June has so far included a reception at 10 Downing Street and posing in his new Olympic kit in the adidas shop window in Oxford Street.

Far from viewing the cameras thrust in his face yesterday at the Central Park Pools in Plymouth as an intrusion on his life, the 14-year-old man-boy understands they are the medium through which his fame is spread across the world.

The eight camera crews in attendance did little more than scratch the surface on the interest in Daley.

America's NBC were present, as were British Forces TV and the BBC. The list of those turned down because of time constraints on the schoolboy who would rule diving was even more impressive, including Nippon TV and Al Jazeera." [Read More]

• British diving prodigy Daley, 14, prepared for Beijing limelight

"Tom Daley is already enjoying some of the fame that comes with being Britain's youngest male Olympian in 48 years.

"I went into Starbucks the other day and got a free chocolate Frappuccino," the 14-year-old diving prodigy said. "It's really weird to think people respect you and recognize you for what you do."

The eyes of the world will be on Britain's newest star when he springs off the 10-meter platform in Beijing in the individual and synchronized competitions.

On an early morning on London's Oxford Street this week, it was just the eyes of businessmen peering into the Adidas store window, where Daley was modeling the British team's kit for a photo shoot.

Inside, the schoolboy proved as adept handling the media as performing twists and summersaults in the air over swimming pools.

Daley flitted between interviews responding to questions from the international reporters and the sportswear sponsor, displaying lucidity beyond his age." [Read More]

• Daley gears up for Olympic splash

"Britain's youngest male Olympian is set to make a splash at this year's Games in Beijing and ITV News has been to meet him.

Tom Daley, 14, will have the eyes of the world on him this summer when he steps on the diving board to compete in the individual and synchronized competitions.

The schoolboy has already courted attention in the UK with Gordon Brown inviting him to Downing Street to hear his views on promoting sport.

Speaking of his love for the sport, Tom said: "I still do sometimes get scared when I'm learning new dives on the 10m - it's a long way up. The first time I dived off 10m I think I had just turned nine. So when I first did it I had butterflies.

"It was the worst experience of my life really, but as soon as I jumped off the board and you feel the freedom of being in the air, you want to do it again and again."

He may be a star in the making, but Tom still has to catch up with his school work like any other teenager.

He said: "My teachers are very good. They give me work to go away with and while everyone's on lunch break, I have to do schoolwork but they're are very good at helping me catch up when I get back to school." [Source]

• Taylor backs city ace Daley

"Tom Daley may only just be old enough to be left home alone, but the young diver can make a big splash in Beijing and beyond, according to his mentor and Olympic silver medalist Leon Taylor.

The Plymouth schoolboy has already excelled on the 10metre platform, winning the 2008 European title to add to his golds from the British Championships in the singles and synchronised event with partner Blake Aldridge.

The duo also claimed first place at the FINA Diving World Series round in Sheffield during May.

Sixth in the FINA world rankings, the young Briton – born in May 1994, who will be just 14 years and 81 days old when the Games start later this summer – faces stiff competition from top Chinese pair Luxin Zhou and Yue Lin, while Sascha Klein of Germany and Australian Matthew Mitcham and America's David Boudia will all have hopes of making it on to the podium.

However, the experiences of his Asian journey will, says Taylor, who reluctantly was forced to announce his retirement earlier this month, stand Daley in good stead for when the best on the planet go head to head in London four years from now." [Source]

• Daley Will Be A Star in Beijing

"Tom daley has been tipped to make a huge impression at this summer's Olympic Games - even if he does not return with a medal.

The city schoolboy sensation will compete in individual and synchronised diving events at Beijing in a little under two months.

Daley will lead Great Britain's charge in the 10m platform and 10m synchro competitions at the biggest sporting event on the planet, against the best in the world.

The Eggbuckland Community College student is partnered by Leeds' Blake Aldridge in the synchro and he is joined by Olympic medallist Peter Waterfield in the individual competition.

Also hoping to join Daley in Beijing are Plymouth Diving Club team-mates Tonia Couch, Brooke Graddon and Sarah Barrow." [Read More]

• Tom Daley Sponsored by Catering Firm

"14-year-old Plymouth diving sensation and Olympic athlete Tom Daley is to be sponsored by catering firm Sodexo.

The company, which provides meals in almost 1,000 British and Irish schools, hopes Tom will help promote healthy eating among school children.

The contract runs until the end of the year." [Source]

• 2008 FINA Diving World Series: China claims eight golds

"...14-year-old British diver Tom Daley missed his sixth dive, falling into fourth place, giving the silver to Jose Guerra Oliva from Cuba and" [Source]


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He may not have medaled but 4th is still good :)

• Aldridge & Daley lay down marker

"After winning synchro gold at the Diving World series in Sheffield, Blake Aldridge and Tom Daley are now setting their sights on the Beijing Olympics.

Aldridge, 26, told BBC London 94.9: "This proves that Thomas and I are a force on the world stage.

"There's no reason why we can't go to the Olympics and win a medal," he said.

Aldridge, who learned to dive at the age of five, is awaiting confirmation that he and Daley will be the Great Britain synchro team in Beijing.

Fellow British duo Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor are also hopeful they could qualify and there may be an eliminator at the Olympic trials in Leeds on 21-22 June. But Aldridge admits the delay in receiving confirmation of their place has been agonising.

"It's quite hard to deal," said Aldridge.

"But what we've done at the weekend in front of the home crowd in Sheffield at the world series make it easy to believe that it will be us that will be going on to Beijing."

Daley, 14, has already qualified in the individual event and will become Britain's second youngest male Olympian after qualifying in the 10m dive competition at the Fina diving World Cup in February.

But as a duo Aldridge and Daley have laid down a marker in beating many of the pairs that they may well be facing on the board in Beijing in just over 10 weeks time." [Source]

• Tom Daley has drop on Beijing Olympic rivals

"Britain's Olympic teenage diving prodigy has the voice and visage of a choirboy, yet the cutting edge and focus of a seasoned, elite athlete. Thomas Daley turned 14 on Wednesday, and the Beijing Games cannot come quickly enough. The shock gold medal winner at the European championships in March continued his rise up the ladder yesterday when he tucked the 10-metre synchro gold and the individual 10m silver medals into his knapsack at the Fina World Series at Pond's Forge in Sheffield. Bag packed, Daley leaves for Nanjing on an early flight this morning to pit himself, as he puts it, "against the best of the best China has to offer".

Daley and team-mate Blake Aldridge - who is 25 - claimed Britain's first-ever gold on Saturday in the 10m synchro to further stake their claim for a place at the Olympics as a team, scoring a perfect 10 with their second dive in the final. Both have already qualified for the individual 10m competition. Daley doubled his haul yesterday with silver in the individual, second only to world championship gold medallist Liang Huo, of China.

The Beijing Games, just 74 days away, loom in Daley's every waking moment. And then in his dreams. The growing bag of booty from Daley's gymnastic assaults from the 10m board beggars belief. Like his hero Alexandre Despatie, who won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1998, aged 13, Daley is ageist. He is the youngest ever international diving gold medallist, the first Briton to be a European champion on any board since Tony Ali - now one of the GB coaches - in 1999, and also the second youngest British male ever to go to the Olympics, after the British Olympic Association unearthed a boy coxswain in the distant past." [Read More]

• Chinese field trip will be key for Tom Daley

"At 5.30 this morning, Tom Daley, 14 years and five days old and buoyed by winning high-board gold and silver medals at the Sheffield round of the Diving World Cup Series at the weekend, was due to board a plane to China with a clear target in mind: the Olympic podium.

The immediate purpose of his trip is the final round of the World Series in Nanjing, but while others may talk around the prospects this summer of the Plymouth schoolboy who in March became the youngest male European diving champion in history, Daley is happy to speak directly.

The youngest member of the Great Britain Olympic team heading for Beijing told The Times: “I'm going there to get used to competing in front of a Chinese crowd. I want to get a flavour of it, the noise, the colour of it. I'm going there to compete and get some good performances in against the best from China." [Read More]

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